S 31 - Supermarine Spitfire XIX - Swedish Air Force, 1949 - Airfix - 1:72 plastic aircraft model

[@colossalbigfoot256]

That hangar was a perfect purchase. Model looks good too.

[@hansjakobli78]

Wow, amazing build!

[@Strandjutter]

Job well done! Beautiful!

[@SprueFascinationChannel]

Great result 👌

[@stuartosborne6263]

Wow! Beautiful, subscribed.

[@ukaszbadura5670]

Nice video, nice build, thanks for sharing it on KZbin. I think it was a photo reconnaissance spitfire - mark XIX. With powerful engine and without and guns and cannons. Thanks!

[@tomsmodeltime6662]

That is correct. The Swedish Air Force used the Mk XIX Spitfire (in Sweden called S 31) as photo reconnaisance aircraft during the Cold War, all the way into the mid 50's. With its max speed of 720 km/h and max operational altitude of 13 km (36 000 feet), the S 31 was used for secret photo missions, a few times deep into the heart of the Soviet Union, photographing marine bases at Murmansk. The Swedish pilots were dressed in civilian clothes and were equipped with fake Soviet passports in case they would need to bail out in Soviet air space. It is told that a few times the Swedish national insignias had been painted over with black circles to make the nationalities of the aircraft more difficult to recognize, but it must have been a rare occasion, as there are no photos of that. A few times, the Soviets spotted them on their radar and scrambled MiG-15 fighters to shoot down the Spitfires, but they could never catch up with them at those high altitudes.

[@ukaszbadura5670]

@@tomsmodeltime6662 thanks for sharing the history of the Swedish Spitfire. I was not aware of it. I heard another Cold War story from the 1980s when heroic Swedish airman escorted American Blackbird and protected it from soviet fighters.

[@septiccalling8341]

Absolutely beautiful………

[@jetsofthecoldwar1149]

Very very nice 👍

[@TheSantini1973]

Great!!!!

[@petter5721]

👍🏻

[@hansjakobli78]

Are you happy with the Gauzy Glass Coat? I bought it too and used it and i am not quite sure what to think of it.

[@tomsmodeltime6662]

I am a bit ambiguous... it makes the transparencies much clearer, but the coating is very easily ripped off or damaged by applying masking tape. I had luck with the Spitfire, but other experiments with scrap transparent pieces resulted in the masking tape partially lifting off the Gauzy Glass coat, even though I was as careful as possible when removing the tape.